Message from Secondary

An impressive number of students fought hard to be elected with very strong persuasive speeches, backed up with examples of previous leadership experience and pledges for how they might be able to make BSN an even better place for students. Lucas and Sofia dutifully counted the votes which were very close in some cases and finally we were able to announce our new Student Council members.

Congratulations go to:

• Year 6 Omar and Lara
• Year 7 Tiago and Manon
• Year 8 Chang Seok and Zoey
• Year 9 Rhys
• Year 10 Ella
• Year 12/13 Lewis

They are the voice of their peers.  They bring issues to the table that concern the students in the school,  we discuss and look for solutions to present to Mr Shepherd for approval for changes to be made. The student Council will also organise at least one event for the students to enjoy in the year. 

The Student Council members will lead a campaign through senior school.  Last year it was everyone get a reusable water bottle. We are so curious to know what will this year campaign be!

October has also been a month where we have been able to welcome university representatives to come and talk to our Year 11 – 13 students, giving insight into life after high school!

Ilan Gutin, the assistant director for international admissions at School of the Arts Institute Chigago (SAIC) visited BSN on the 11^th October.  Mr Gutin presented to BSN art students from years 9-12 explaining the courses on offer at SAIC and the admissions process and requirements.  He also talked students through example portfolios explaining what the admissions team are looking for in the presentation, style and quality of the portfolio.  SAIC is a excellent university, ranked in the world top 10 art universities.  It is connected to the 3^rd largest art museum in the world and provides wonderful, flexible routes of creative study at undergraduate and postgraduate level.  It is well worth considering for any BSN student who would like to study art at degree level in the United States.

On Monday October 14th, BSN was delighted to host Sohvi Riekkinen from Northumbria University at Newcastle in the UK. This is Ms Riekkinen's second visit to BSN and we were very pleased to welcome her back. On this occasion Ms Riekkinen led a session for students on how to write their personal statements for UK University applications. Around 20 students from Years 11, 12 and 13 were taken through the process and had the opportunity to as questions about applying to the UK. Ms Riekkinen gave a brief introduction to Northumbria University, before providing students with an excellent talk on how to make their personal statement stand out from the crowd. She covered topics such as do's and don'ts, the structure of the personal statement, the key points that you should make, as well as pointing out some of the mistakes that students often make when completing their statement. The feedback from students was very positive.

Finally on the 17^th October, BSN was pleased to host Mr Ben Yang from the KE Foundation. He made a presentation to Year 11 – 13 students about his company which offers summer schools and scholarships to Universities in the UK and the USA. More information can be found by following this link: https://kefoundation.org/

All of our residential trip groups have been busy preparing for their imminent departures. The Year 12 students organised a non uniform day to raise more funds to support the voluntary work that they will be undertaking in Tanzania. There was a phenomenal response from the whole school and we managed to raise RMB 8318 overall. This money will be used to buy the solar cells that students will help to install in people’s homes, the wood for the goat sheds that students will build for local communities, and of course the raw materials necessary to help build the new school that our students will be contributing to.

Students in Years 8 – 11 who are heading to Cambodia have been working very hard to create lessons for the local students that they will be teaching as part of their community work in Siem Reap. Students have often been seen huddling together on a lunchtime being creative with ideas, writing lesson plans, time-planning activities and some of students have asked to take materials with them to donate to the children they teach. We wish them a lot of luck as we heard this week that Cambodian classes can have up to 60 children in them – a daunting task for even experienced teachers!!